When Congress was debating tax law reform last year, there was talk of repealing the federal estate and gift taxes. As it turned out, rumors of their demise were highly exaggerated. Both still exist and every taxpayer with a high degree of wealth shouldn’t let either take their heirs by surprise. Exclusions and Exemptions For [...]
How to Use Memorized Transactions in QuickBooks Tired of repetitive data entry? QuickBooks provides a way to save time and keystrokes when you create some transactions. We wrote last month about the benefits of having QuickBooks on your desktop. Among those we listed are three that have impact on every business that uses it. QuickBooks [...]
The passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act late last year had a marked impact on Roth IRAs: to wit, taxpayers who wish to convert a pretax traditional IRA into a post-tax Roth IRA can no longer “re-characterize” (that is, reverse) the conversion for 2018 and later years. The IRS recently clarified in FAQs [...]
For some people, Roth IRAs can offer income and estate tax benefits that are preferable to those offered by traditional IRAs. However, it’s important to take note of just what the distinctive features of Roth IRA are before making the choice. Traditional vs. Roth The biggest difference between traditional and Roth IRAs is how taxes [...]
As a business owner, you may have most of your money tied up in your company – making saving for retirement especially challenging. If you haven’t already set up a tax-advantaged retirement plan, think about setting one up this year. Keep in mind that, if you have employees, they generally must be allowed to participate [...]
Wouldn’t it be great if your employees worked as if they owned the company? An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) could make that a reality. Under an ESOP, employee participants take part ownership of the business through a retirement savings arrangement. Meanwhile, the business and its existing owner(s) can benefit from some tax breaks, an [...]